Noah's Winter

Chapter Nine

Chris and Riley began to count and each group ran off in different directions. Noah began to sprint down the hall and I ran after him, trying to keep up. After turning down a few halls I knew he had lost me. Great, I got buzz kill as a partner, I thought grumpily. I sighed and leaned up against the white wall catching my breath. Suddenly the closet door opened and I was pulled into the dark room.  I gasped and felt around until I felt a warm face. My hand moved frantically, touching the body. 

"W-who is this?" 

"It's your partner, smart one." I froze in my tracks. That was the first time I had ever heard Noah talk, and it was beautiful, no matter how rude he was being.

 "Oh." Was all I could sputter out.

 "Yeah." For some reason I got really angry really fast.

 "Gosh, Noah. What is your problem? I never did one dang thing to you! Heck, I even go out of my way to talk to you and be nice, but you never even give me the time of day."

 It was quiet for a moment but then he spoke, "I know." And with that he opened the closet door and sauntered off.

 The bright lights from the hallway momentarily blinded me. Finally, I got my eye sight back and I ran after Noah. 

"Noah!" I ran after him and I saw him walking outside to the mini garden the hospital had.

 "Noah, what do you mean, you know? You know what?" I had grabbed his shoulder and turned him toward me. I glanced at the garden around us and gasped. It seemed symbolic somehow, all the flowers were dying and all the leaves had fallen to the ground. That was us, we were slowly dying. A huge oak tree caught my eye. It still had its orange and red leaves. For some reason this tree gave me hope, it made me feel safe and secure, like we would all be okay. Underneath it one single bench stood. 

"I know that it hurts you when I don't respond. When you say hi I want to say hi back." He was staring intently at his shoe lace, as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

 "Then why don't you just say hi, Noah?" 

He took a deep breath. "I'm dying. You're dying. We are all dying. Why get close to one another and have our lives become that much harder when one of us dies?" His words seemed like ice stabbing me in the heart. He looked at me with burning violet eyes. I clenched my jaw, and swallowed the lump forming in my throat, I would not cry in front of him. 

"Everyone will die one day, Noah. Why not live everyday to its fullest, instead of just sitting there waiting to die? Even though we may die earlier than others does that mean we don't deserve to be happy? To laugh and have great memories?"

His eyes softened and the muscles in his back relaxed. 

"Yes. We deserve it." And it was at that moment that I knew my words had so much meaning and truth behind them that it was hard to grasp. We did deserve to live. We deserved to laugh. And we deserved to love. Our time maybe be limited but why not enjoy it while we had it? Noah and I sat on the beige bench. We talked for an hour, mostly of unimportant stuff. I learned that Noah loved the color gray, which is why he loved my eyes. I was taken aback by that comment. He liked all types of music except for jazz and loved camping. He was a champion swimmer, as was I.

After I glanced at my cell phone I realized my mom had called me five times. 

"I have to go; my mom is going to freak." I stood up and so he did also. 

"Bye," I murmured and turned away. Noah grabbed my wrist and turned me around.

 He pulled me into a tight hug and murmured in my ear, "I'm really glad we talked." He pecked me on the forehead, and walked past me. I stood there frozen in place. Once he was gone I put my fingers to my forehead where he had kissed it. I inhaled the crisp fresh air and looked at the beautiful oak tree once more before leaving to my room.

**A/N**

I thought this chapter was real cute. We got to learn a few things about Noah and why he's so standoff-ish to Winter(:

Well enjoy, fan, comment, vote, and share!

Love,

Megs.